


Brief Moment

by EarthsickWithoutYou



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Smut, Snowellsweek2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-05-14 19:06:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19279300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EarthsickWithoutYou/pseuds/EarthsickWithoutYou
Summary: Set in Season 4.  Caitlin's been struggling to find just one moment to connect with Harry and tell him she loves him, but sometimes the moment just bumps into you and knocks you right off your feet.  :)  Inspired by the Snowells Week prompt, "I think today might be the day."





	Brief Moment

_I think today might be the day._

Caitlin smiled shyly at her own reflection in the hall mirror, guiding her ponytail through the opening at the back of her STAR Labs baseball cap. The smile wasn’t directed at herself, but was something else...maybe a practice smile, in case this really was the day she had a moment alone with him to talk, and then she’d need it. The smile would be bashful like this one; there was nothing she could do about that, and it wavered with questions that might make it break into a grin or slide away carefully into a practiced line of resignation.

Just the thought of telling Harry how she felt made her heart jump and her smile in the mirror widen. It was a bad idea to let herself fantasize too much about how it might go, because then she’d only be let down harder if she never got what she wanted. By now, she knew Harry by heart, and that meant that the version of him who starred in her fantasies of dating and sex and staring into each others’ eyes holding hands on every holiday because they’d never have to be alone again was very realistic. 

_Problematically realistic._

But it was too hard to shake off the temptation of imagining how it would feel to have him by her side, in her bed, on her lips. She couldn’t stop, so she had to tell him she loved him. Then, if he didn’t feel the same, maybe she _could_ stop. It would hurt, but she’d finally be able to move on.

“Maybe,” she muttered, locking the front door as she headed outside. She stretched and jogged in place a few times, then set off running towards the park by the lake, wishing that the music flowing through her earbuds could calm her down. That seemed pretty unlikely, though, since pretty much every one of her playlists for about three years now had been an “I have a crush on Harry Wells” playlist.

The truth was, she didn’t really like to run. But this one day a couple of weeks ago she’d been sitting on the park bench with Iris having a coffee and they saw Harry run by, so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t even see them until his third go-round despite the fact that they were waving at him and calling his name. He had earbuds, too.

After that, Caitlin came here almost every day, just hoping to ever-so-casually run into Harry. It was so hard to ever get a moment alone with him to pour her heart out, and every time she tried to ask him for that when they were at the Lab, someone interrupted them or a metahuman foe attacked when she was mid-sentence. Even the last time they’d had coffee at Jitters, some poor, nice girl had bumped into Caitlin and Harry and spilled her drinks all over them and that had been the end of _that_ love confession attempt.

It was only so often she could even get up the nerve to discuss it with him, given that looking into his gorgeous face and being able to play things even a little bit cool was an impossibility. Then if he began talking, as he so often did, in that sexy-husky voice of his, making words like “formula” and “polarity” and “the pipeline” sound weirdly sensual -- okay, maybe that last one was a little suggestive on its own -- anyway, forget it! She melted whenever he was around and ended up gazing at him dreamily, then refocusing her mind to work before she blathered out some incoherent admission about how much she loved his bright blue eyes, his mop of _always_ -messy black hair, those dimples in his elusive, precious smiles, his grumpy exterior and the enormous amount of kindness in his heart. Then when it came to his body…

Caitlin started running faster, huffing her breaths as her pace reached that level which was within her ability but still uncomfortably intense. She thought maybe she could just outrun the thoughts of his firm biceps in those tight black t-shirts he always wore, or the sneak peek of hard stomach she’d glimpsed from time to time when he stretched and said tight black t-shirt rode up. Then, of course, there were his black jeans, exquisitely flattering on his ridiculously perfect ass, as she couldn’t help noticing every time he turned around or bent over, hello, she wasn’t blind! And his long legs--

Long legs which were currently running right towards her, actually. Caitlin startled out of her blushing thought tangent and pulled her earbuds out, stopping short at the sight of him. But true to form, instead of seeing her and stopping as well to greet his friend, Harry ran smack into her, knocking them both over onto the pavement.

“Oooof, Snow, I am so sorry,” he said as they both groaned. He sat up with a pained look at her nice, new pale pink Adidas leggings, which had ripped at one knee when she’d skinned it. “You were probably trying to stop me to say hi again, and here I am so lost in my own world that I didn’t even see you there, _again_ \--” 

Harry was babbling, as if seeing Caitlin made him a little nervous somehow too, and that made her relax and give him a reassuring smile. “It’s fine, Harry.”

“No, it’s not fine, look at your knee, here, let me help you…” Harry gave her his hand and she stood, half-limping as he guided her to a nearby bench. Her knee stung, and she’d need to go home soon to clean the gravel out of the wound and bandage it, but still, she was so happy she ran into him. Even just to get a few more of his smiles and hear him talking just to her, a little bit more of his attention, it was so worth it.

She bent her knee and drew it to her chest, examining the scrape as Harry wrapped his earbuds around his phone and stuffed it into the pocket of his black track pants.

“It’s still nice to see you,” she smiled gently.

“Hey, why don’t you come back to the Lab with me and I’ll help you take care of that?” he asked anxiously, clearly feeling bad about causing the injury.

“Nah, it’ll be a madhouse at this time of the day what with all the projects we have going...I want to enjoy my day off.” They both laughed at the logical assumption that Ralph and Cisco would be bickering, Barry would be obsessing over ways to stop DeVoe, and soon enough they’d both end up back in the fray, bickering and obsessing with the best of them.

“If you...uh, if you want, you could come home with me. I’ve got a first aid kit, and I’ll make you a coffee?” A bold claim, and one that assumed her keurig would actually be functioning properly, but she bit her lip, playing with the tear in her leggings as she waited for his reply.

“Okay,” he said warmly, an intimate glint in his eyes taking her breath away more than a sudden crash to the pavement ever could. “C’mon, lean on me till we get to the park entrance and then I’ll get us an Uber.”

“Harry, I live right down the street and it’s just a scrape. I’ll be okay,” she laughed, snaking an arm around his waist and leaning on him just a little as they started making their way. His stomach was firm, his skin so warm under his t-shirt that she could feel his body heat radiating under her palm. The shirt was just a little damp, as if he’d been running for a good long while and worked up a bit of a sweat, but he didn’t smell bad, which was typical... _why did he have to be so damn perfect all the time?_

But she knew he wasn’t perfect; he just seemed perfect to her because she loved him down to the last detail of his most problematic flaw. 

He smelled of ginseng and sage, most likely from whatever soap he used, and under that of course just the slightest hint of coffee. If she managed to make him one, it would probably be his tenth of the day.

“So, this is your house, huh, Snow? Hard to believe I’ve never been inside as long as I’ve known you.” He grinned up at her modest little starter home, the place she’d once intended to share with Ronnie, though it was small enough that it still made sense to keep living there alone. 

The memories of her husband which once haunted the place had become a gentler sense of nostalgia, and had little to do with the aching loneliness that kept her up at night wondering if she’d always be alone and why it had to be this way. Why did it have to be so hard trying to meet people with all these infuriating dating apps, and why did too-old-for-you, probably-not-into-you, inappropriately hot scientists have to wear glasses and be all short-tempered and yummy? 

“That’s okay, you’re here now,” she said with a soft smile. “Come on in.” 

Harry sat down on the couch in her living room, and she thought he looked right at home in her space, though it was a little bit surreal to see him there on the very couch where she usually sat up late watching romantic movies, crying and longing for him.

“This is nice. You like to read, too,” he noticed, getting up and going to peruse the bookshelf, making her blush as she walked into the kitchen and took down the first aid kit from the high cabinet, then fished through the lower ones looking for k-cups. 

“Oh, yeah, it’s probably not much of what you’d be into reading,” she called, clicking a dark roast coffee k-cup into the keurig and silently pleading with it to function properly instead of giving her a mug of brown water replete with floating black specs of caffeinated failure.

“You read love stories,” he said, surprised, chin in hand as she came back out and handed him the mug. “Hufflepuff,” he read off the mug, and she laughed.

“Yeah.” Nodding at him with a sly look, she added, “And you’re...what, Ravenclaw? Or Slytherin?”

“I took the quiz twice because the first time it said Slytherin and I really didn’t want that. Then the second time it came back Ravenclaw, but I don’t know if that counts,” Harry explained, blowing on his coffee and watching Caitlin settle into the couch and open the first aid kit, removing the alcohol swabs, q-tips, ointment and large square bandaids.

“Let me do it,” he suggested, setting his mug down and sitting beside her. Caitlin paused in the act of rolling up her pant leg.

“You don’t have to,” she blushed, but he put his hand on hers and shook his head.

“Please let me? I’d like to.” His smile was thoughtful, almost analytical as he watched her face, and that same chemistry flickered wildly between them as they maintained their gaze long after the normal amount of time for mutual eye contact had expired.

She nodded, shivers running down her spine at the way he’d looked at her so intently, tenderly...longingly? Was she misreading him, could this be all in her head?

“Here, it doesn’t make any sense to do it like that, you’ll only cut off your circulation -- these pants are ruined anyway, right? I’ll buy you a new pair.”

“Oh, Harry, you don’t need to--”

“I want to, Snow, you _should_ have another pair. This outfit looks great on you.” Ironically, he punctuated his point by ripping the rest of her legging pantleg off above the knee, so that her leg was bared from that point on, her calf resting in his hands.

“Thanks,” she smiled, “That’s really something coming from you, Harry. I didn’t think you paid much attention to what people wear.”

“Oh, come on, I’m not that checked-out,” he argued, carefully cleaning the dirt from her cut as she winced slightly. He steadied her with his other hand on her knee, his long fingers easily encompassing the petite bump. “Sorry.”

“I don’t mind.”

If he was going to sit there holding her mostly-naked leg in his big, lightly calloused hand, paying her compliments and glancing up at her periodically with stars in his eyes, she wouldn’t have minded getting a superficial injury on a daily basis.

“Anyway,” he cleared his throat, his mouth dimpling on one side in a shy half-smile, “I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but you always look great, well -- more than great, what a weak adjective. I’m sure all those authors up there on your shelves could do better than that, huh?”

“I wouldn’t be as interested,” Caitlin admitted, and their eyes met more intensely.

“Well, what about that day -- uh, maybe last month or something, when you had on that whole--” He ran his hand over his own upper torso, confusedly trying to describe women’s fashion. “It was grey.” His face lit up with hilarious pride at his ability to explain it in any way, however basic. “Oh! And buttons down the jacket, black buttons, but the inside cuffs were like an orangey red…then you had on this black top under it…”

Harry’s cheeks pinkened as he dabbed her wound with ointment. “That had like this lace trimming all along the top, that was, uh…” He set the q-tip aside on a tissue atop the coffee table and said more deliberately, “That was the best part.”

“Right! That day I wore a suit to work,” Caitlin recalled, amazed her voice could be heard above the screaming going on in her brain and the way her body tingled in all the most delicious ways at his words, his face, oh, God, his face when he looked at her like that, as if she hung the moon. “Um, I had a medical conference that day, so...I dressed up a little.”

“And I _know_ ”, he teased slyly, “I paid you a compliment that day.”

“Yeah, uh-huh, now that I think of it, you did.” Caitlin took off her hat, then released her hair from the ponytail because it all felt a little too tight on her overthinking mind. Harry stared at her as her lustrous, blond-streaked brown hair fell in waves around her shoulders in her pretty pink top. One of the shoulders of her sweatshirt slid subtly down her shoulder and his stare wandered to that smooth slope of her skin just for another few beats. 

“You said, ‘you look ready to do business,’” Caitlin recalled as Harry remembered it at the same time and said it almost in perfect unison.

“Exactly! See, I knew I let you know how amazing you looked.” He pressed the bandaid to her scrape, trying to secure it properly to her skin without putting undue weight on the cut itself. “How amazing you always look.”

“I honestly had no idea you thought that,” she marveled. 

His words had been so awkwardly simple that she hadn’t understood the deeper meaning and intent behind them. Harry was a little different from your average guy, and that was just one of the many reasons why she adored him so. He didn’t go around lavishing every pretty girl in his path with shallow compliments, setting up dates he only half-intended to even show up to, or making fun of them during dating app chats just to give his ego a boost. 

Yeah, Caitlin knew plenty of men who were way above that type of conduct: Barry, Joe, Cisco -- hell, by now even Ralph had learned from their example to turn over a new leaf when it came to his attitude towards women. But given how frequently she encountered creepoid antics in her ill-fated recent attempts to date, it was so fucking _refreshing_ that Harry was a complete gentleman. When he fell, he fell hard and was in it for life, like the way he’d loved his late wife, as Jesse had once confided to her. When he told a woman she was beautiful, he stumbled over the words because he was blown away by someone he considered a vision of radiance. He boasted ceaselessly of his scientific genius, one of his many defense mechanisms, but when it came to his own stunning good looks, he was utterly oblivious. Humble and honest.

He was keeping himself busy tidying up the first aid kit, but her leg still rested on his, her eyes searching his anxious features for more of his truth.

“Also, what about Christmas? Wow, when I ever saw you in that, uh...soft, red…?”

“It was a maroon velvet cocktail dress,” Caitlin grinned, “And you looked pretty dapper yourself that evening. There’s nothing like a devastatingly handsome man in a festive sweater.”

Harry froze in the act of closing the lid on the first aid kit box and sat up straighter, looking at her in astonishment. “‘Devastatingly handsome,’ me? Snow, I had, uh-- gosh, I really had no idea you thought that, either.”

“I’m starting to wonder if we should start being a little blunter with each other, Harry,” she ventured, placing her hand tenderly over his when he clearly felt he had left it on her leg for too long.

“I just thought, you’re way out of my league,” he admitted, completely overwhelmed. “I mean, in every single way, Caitlin, you’re -- goddess-level beautiful, you’re smart enough to rival even me--”

“Why, thank you,” she joked, though his humorous aside had done nothing to distract her from the overall resonance of his statements, the understanding that the crush had been mutual all along and she’d been blind not to notice.

“And, and you’re so sweet and caring with everyone, not even people you owe the slightest bit of attention to, you go out of your way to help others every day of your life, but you wear that kindness with such incomparable grace that it looks effortless, even though I know it can’t be.” He stared into her eyes, playing with the sleeve of her sweater, dipping one finger inside to stroke her arm just above her wrist. It was a gesture so almost chaste as to meet Victorian standards of conduct, but to Caitlin it was so sexy she could just about breathe.

“You’re so stylish and accomplished, and I’m over here trading insults with Cisco, scrambling around the lab trying to pull answers on defeating DeVoe out of thin air, I mean I’m nothing impressive, I’m just--”

“You’re just my everything,” Caitlin sighed, shifting even closer to take his face in her hands, stroking his jaw slowly as he regarded her in amazement, his lips gently parted, his eyes flicking from hers down to her mouth and back again. “My _everything._ ” She felt like she was about to burst into tears, but she had to get this out despite the ache in her throat, the flush in her cheeks and the way his face started to blur as her eyes watered over. 

“And you,” Harry said softly, caressing her face, tucking a stray lock of wavy hair behind one of her delicate ears, “You, Caitlin, are my love.”

She leaned up and kissed his mouth, tentative and soft, feeling the nervous energy, the frazzled arousal inside her starting to open up into something much deeper. Harry’s hands wandered from her shoulders, falling to her waist and holding her firmly, and their lips met several more times, each time getting a little more daring until finally the floodgates burst.

Caitlin moaned into Harry’s mouth as he guided her onto his lap, their kisses getting wet, messy and deep, their tongues tangling as pleasure sang through her body, as his hands slid under her shirt and undid her bra. He lifted her shirt over her head and tossed it aside, the two of them exchanging a passionate look before they kissed again, his thumb brushing her nipple as she let out a strangled cry of ecstasy.

Inspired by the vehemence of her response, Harry cupped both of her breasts, gently squeezing and then teasing her nipples again, kissing her slowly, biting down lightly on her lower lip, then sucking it, drawing out the sensations as she let out a helpless whimper of need. “Harry,” she moaned as he kissed her neck, “I need you inside me.”

He nodded and picked her up, carrying her to her bedroom and laying her down on the bed, peeling off what was left of her leggings, then whipping off his shirt and resting his body between her hips. It took him that long to start to feel shy about revealing himself sans clothes, but she gazed at him in wonderment, feeling the strength and firmness of his pecs, the exquisite dip then cute softness in his belly, her fingers traipsing back up it, stroking the side of his torso as he sighed rapturously. She put both of her hands on his shoulders and ran them down his arms, the muscles she’d admired lustfully so many times, wanting them on top of her, wanting his pressure and his hands holding her down, taking her over.

“I love your body,” she grinned, making him blush again. Playfully, she hooked her toes into his pants and shoved them down, along with his underwear. “I love your face when you do that, acting all bashful, like you don’t know you’re gorgeous.”

“ _You’re_ gorgeous,” Harry smiled, gently running his fingers through her hair, then resuming his adoration of her body, sitting up and parting her thighs, lifting her leg to kiss her knee.

“I love your face when you look at me like I’m a queen. I love it when you’re angry and mean and when you’re sorry after. I love… _God…_ ” Harry teased her aching slit with one of his long, skillful fingers, working up more moisture at her center before he slid one digit inside her and pumped slowly in and out. “I love you.”

He smiled thoughtfully, then shifted lower on the bed and supplemented his finger-fucking with the slick, softly wet attention of his tongue, lavishing over her throbbing sex again and again, until mere seconds after he’d added a second finger, she came in a hot, startled spasm of her hips against his hand, a harsh mewl falling from her lips as her fingers gripped the sheets in one hand and his hair in the other.

“Like I said,” he remarked as he hovered over her face again, licking his lips to savor her essence, his eyes glittering with devotion, his cheeks flushed with exertion. “You’re fucking _gorgeous_ , Caitlin. Delicious, too.”

“Give me all of you,” she smiled dreamily, and he devoured her lips in another long, possessive kiss, rubbing his urgent hard-on against her entrance several times until her moans grew so loud that he let go of his need to tease her and thrust his rigid length inside her tight, velvety sex. 

She’d been painfully touch-deprived for so long that a pleasure this deep blew her mind. How could Harry really be here, making sweet, hard and rough but tender love to her when his was the only touch she’d wanted?

Harry gave an animalistic grunt and pinned her wrists to the sheets, driving in and out of her slick cunt in long, firm strokes, his cock getting hotter and harder until he pulled out, panting with excitement and the frenetic pulse of prolonged suspense that sent his blood pumping straight to his urgent arousal.

“I want you like this,” he murmured, guiding Caitlin onto her hands and knees as she eagerly followed his command. When he sank his thick erection back inside her tightly pulsing walls, she gave a shrill cry at the beautiful depth of the new position, and Harry moaned, slapping her ass and squeezing one cheek, pumping fast and deep inside her.

His roughness intensified her ecstasy until she came again with a startled mewl, her cunt squeezing his cock and making it even easier for him to let go as well, spilling his euphoric surrender inside her, gripping her hips tensely as the pleasure racked his body, making him shudder as he rocked into her several more times.

Caitlin fell to her side when he pulled out of her, and then they just stared at each other for a few suspended minutes of panting, wild-eyed disbelief. She watched him watching her with his mouth hanging open, those sumptuous lips of his puffy and pink from all the kissing and sucking, his eyes the very bluest blue from the bottom of the ocean, where her heart let him wash over her like the sweetest, most turbulent wave.

“It really was the day,” she marveled, taking his hand and lacing her fingers through his.

“Huh?” he asked, still recovering from the overwhelming joy of their union.

She giggled and ruffled his hair. “I waited so many days to tell you I love you, silly. I woke up thinking maybe today was the day, and it actually _was._ I only hope I’m not dreaming, cause this seems to good to be true.”

Harry smirked, then leaned over to pinch her ass, earning himself a swat on the arm. Damn, his _arms_ , speaking of things that felt too good to be true! “I think you’re awake,” he teased.

“Better fuck me again just to make sure,” she suggested in her sultriest voice of scientific inquiry. “Test the hypothesis.”

“I might have to fuck you a _few_ more times, just to be thorough,” Harry grinned, rolling onto his back and pulling her on top so she could straddle him, resting her hands on his chest and biting her lip coquettishly, her hair spilling all around her shoulders. “I might have to marry you, just to be absolutely certain.” 

He lifted her hand and kissed it, trailing his lips to the pulse point at her wrist to find it was pounding like a sledgehammer. Her eyes, when he met them again were tear-glazed.

“I might have to say yes, just because you’re my everything.”

**Author's Note:**

> The story was also strongly influenced by Oh Land's song "Brief Moment," which is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. <3


End file.
